Melina Merlin (b. San Francisco, California) is a Chicana artist and practice-based PhD researcher at the Research Centre for Arts and Learning at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her/their research investigates how expanded drawing practices chronicle Mexican diasporic identity through the erased figure of the Huastecan female ballplayer. Their practice re-writes dominant archaeological, archival and art historical narratives that gendered these figures.
Grounded in decolonial, feminist and Indigenous methodologies, her art practice treats drawing as both a visual practice and a critical archival strategy—one that intervenes in institutional records, historical erasures and colonial modes of knowledge production. This practice-led research explores how embodied knowledge, creativity and material processes function as acts of resistance and historical correction within both exhibition and archival representation.
Merlin is the recipient of the Award for Outstanding Critical Engagement from City & Guilds of London Art School, where she completed her MA with Distinction, following a BA with First Class Honours from Goldsmiths in 2024.
A lifelong social activist and football player, their embodied relationship to sport directly informs their research into gender, visibility and power. Merlin holds a law degree from Golden Gate University School of Law, grounding her artistic practice in histories of advocacy, human rights and structural critique.